On Dreams And Their Timings...

Every story needs a beginning. Every great vision needs a spark. Every major movement needs a starting point. The journey of a thousand miles? Yes it had to start from a single solitary step. So also, every dream needs to be birthed. Now let's get this clear, it needs to be birthed. This is where so many of us miss out on the fundamentals in the pursuit of destiny. The birth of dreams is similar to the birth of any other creature. So what's that similarity? It's size, stature. See, a dream born is similar to a baby born in that both are small, both are dependent on the parent or ‘birther’ for support, attention, nourishment and grooming. And both, given sufficient amounts of these, have the propensity to grow big and strong, to mature and fully become what they were meant to be from the moment they were conceived. Yes, the baby is just a little, tiny man or woman and just as every human being (short of Adam & Eve that is) started out as a baby, so every dream has to begin in such a small, delicate, often powerless and inconsequential form.

Now where am I heading with all this? Simply this: More often than not, dreams are meant to start small. Unfortunately, I've come across too many people who are waiting for things to be 'right' before they launch out. Alot of them're still waiting...

Let's be frank now. Perfect situations and 'seasons for dreams' rarely happen. It's very unlikely that you'll find enough money and enough time and enough people to support you and a conducive environment to boot all at the same time! Uh uh, hardly likely. In fact, in many cases, waiting for such perfect situations might be detrimental to the survival of your dream. Imagine a pregnant mother waiting for the labour pains to stop before she starts pushing! Needless to say, someone’s going to die!

Anyway, back to the issue ...what was it again? Okay, waiting for the right circumstances before launching into our dreams. So why do we do it? Well, from my observation, it seems alot of folks have failed to grasp the basic idea of the nature of a birthed dream. As I said earlier, a dream starts out like a baby: small, delicate, dependent. Alot of folks however have the notion that their dreams have to be birthed in a complete, fully functional, quickly self sustaining howbeit scaled down state. ...I don’t think so. That's like expecting the mother to give birth to a fully developed, walking, talking, university graduate -howbeit small, day old man or woman as a baby! Yes, babies have the potential to be adults, but for the period immediately after birth, they are ...babies. Allowance has to be given for their care, nurturing and raising up into the adults they were always meant to be. Ditto for dreams. Just as the baby needs support to get through its developmental years, so also dreams need attention in order to fully become what you conceived them as.

Now finally, let's bring it back home: Dreams will more often than not be born small and into some degree of inconvenience. About 90% of the time, newly birthed ideas will need good amounts of attention either from the parent or 'birther' or from some other party with understanding and commitment to the dream. Attention here may refer not just to time but to material resources as well.

Now after all's been said, do we wait for when we have all these resources in place before starting off? Don’t think so. Now I'm not saying you should start off with nothing, no market knowledge, no feasibility studies, no experience of any sort and not even a little money. No, by all means get as much stuff as you need to start. But don’t wait to have everything in place before you start! This is important because -and allow me to use a term I've already discountenanced- if there are 'seasons of dreams' there's a high likelihood that the season or your dream might meet you when everything isn't in place. But you've still got to launch out. I like picking from this lesson given by Colin Powell: "Don't wait until you have enough facts to be 100 percent sure. Use the formula P=40 to 70, in which P stands for the probability of success and the numbers indicate the percentage of information acquired. Once the information is in the 40 to 70 range, go with your gut."

Now in conclusion, I must say that it does take a good deal of guts to pursue a big dream in the face of the odds that may abound. And it takes wisdom too (oh boy, does take wisdom!) And understanding (of alot of stuff) Needless to say you need God on your team to even contemplate the venture (wouldn't be a bad idea if He were in the driver's seat either!) So in all, I'd say these have to be in place for the birthing of any good dream. And when they are in place and your gut instincts say so, please go go go! It might just be time for it, who knows, any other time might be less ideal for that particular idea.

Sometimes the avoidance of risk is a risk in itself -of the future you desire and the heights you wish to attain. Everyday presents opportunities woven into the tapestry of everyday life and though the most astute among pick them out, only the enterprising and proactive thinkers will go on to weave the strands into priceless tapestry of an exceptionally bright and fulfilled future.

Finally, permit me to leave you with a familiar and very relevant quote from scripture: 'He who observes the wind will not sow' (emphasis mine)

-K-Black